MARANAOS DEMAND CLOSURE OF HYDROELECTRIC POWER PLANT
ILIGAN CITY , Lanao del Norte, Philippines -- There is no love lost between the
people of Lake Lanao and the giant National Power Corp. (Napocor).
Where before the Maranaos only asked that they be given special consideration as
the owner of the lake that allows the Napocor's hydroelectric power plants to
generate power to light Mindanao, now they are demanding the plants' immediate
closure.
The reason: It is dangerous to their health.
In a press conference here Tuesday, Bayan Balt, chair of Ranao Claims Against
Power Plants (RCAPP), said the power plants were causing floods and landslides
that led to loss of lives and livelihood, and damage to property and
agricultural products.
The Inquirer tried to seek comment from Napocor but no official was around to
answer Balt's allegations.
Balt zeroed in on infrastructure, particularly dams and dikes, constructed along
the Agus River, as the culprits in the massive flooding experienced in Lanao.
The Agus River stretches around 30 kilometers from Lake Lanao in Marawi City in
Lanao del Sur to the Ma. Cristina Falls in Iligan City in Lanao del Norte.
Balt said the dams and the Agus 1 tunnel obstruct the free and natural flow of
water from Lake Lanao to the Agus River.
He said, Napocor would close the dams during rainy days and this results in
flooding of farms.
Balt said all these would have been prevented had the Napocor complied with the
terms and conditions of its Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC).
He said the Napocor in effect had "abandoned its obligations to protect the
lives of our people."
The irregular opening and closure of the regulatory and overflow dams have
brought damage and destruction to 60,000 hectares of agricultural lands, Balt said.
This also led to the flooding of homes, Islamic schools and mosques, and the
uprooting of over 500,000 Maranaos. Thousands of farmers and fishermen have also
lost their livelihood, Balt said.
Balt said the situation has reached a point where they might have to defend
themselves since it is their lives at stake.
He said that they will only sit down and talk with Napocor if it would comply
with some of their demands. Inquirer, 08/27/2004
GOV'T TO BACK HIGHER NAPOCOR RATES
CLARK FIELD, Pampanga - The government is willing to support a rate increase by
the National Power Corp. (Napocor) if the Energy Regulatory Board (ERB) finds
the increase "justified," Energy Secretary Vince Perez said.
He said that among the "drastic measures" being considered by President Arroyo
to "help bring down" the cost of electricity is the partial privatization of
Napocor.
Mrs. Arroyo gave the Department of Energy (DOE) 18 months to ensure that 70
percent of the power generation assets of Napocor are sold to private investors.
Perez said the measures are necessary to avert a power crisis by 2006,
especially in Cebu, Panay and southeastern Mindanao. He noted that power demand
in these areas grows by 12 to 14 percent annually.
Perez expressed confidence that the government's "fighting" timetable would be
met "now that political uncertainty is gone."
While the problems of the power sector "have been languishing for many decades,"
there has been an increase in investor interest in the power industry, he said.
Perez said the sale of Napocor's power plants will allow more players to enter
the power industry and create competition that will eventually bring down the
cost of electricity.
But Perez said that government will hold on to 30 percent of Napocor's power
generation assets.
The ERB will also retain its power to defend consumers from "market abuse."
Perez said that power transmission and distribution will continue to be
regulated since by nature they are monopolies.
He said that the President hopes to have by 2010 "a healthy power industry where
the players are competing on who could sell the cheapest power." Phil. Star,
07/05/2004
SHELL, CALTEX ROLL LPG PRICES BACK BY P11
Proof that competitive forces are at work in the country's deregulated oil
industry is the announcement of Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. that it will
roll back the price of its liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by P1 per kilo starting
today.
Last June 15, Shell increased the price of its LPG by P1.70 per kilogram or
P18.70 per 11-kg cylinder. This came even as industry leader Petron Corp., which
accounts for 25 percent of the LPG market in the country, has not increased its
LPG prices.
But Shell external affairs general manager Roberto Kanapi pointed out that the
move to roll back LPG prices was just to keep local prices consistent with
international LPG prices.
Kanapi disclosed that contract price for June was $350 per metric ton compared
to July's $329.
Shell's suggested retail price for its LPG in Metro Manila will now be P350 to
P360 per 11-kg cylinder.
As of press time, Petron said it is still assessing the market. "There is no
advice yet on our move," Petron said.
Two other oil firms that raised their prices last June 15, Caltex Philippines
Inc. and Total Philippines Inc., have yet to announce their decision if they
will follow Shell's move.
Phil. Star, 07/02/2004
PALACE SAYS IT'S CLUELESS ABOUT NAPOCOR PETITION
Malacanang says it has no idea why the state power firm would take a move that
is bound to affect the lives of every Filipino household and all industries in
the country.
That was the Palace reply Sunday when asked why National Power Corp. was seeking
a power rate increase, in the face of President Macapagal-Arroyo's election
campaign promise to make power costs in the country the lowest in the region.
"Maybe the first thing that Napocor needs to explain clearly is this plan of
theirs so that we will know what is really their basis for asking for this kind
of increase," the President's spokesperson Ignacio Bunye said on RMN radio.
Asked if Ms Macapagal knew how the Department of Energy and the Energy
Regulatory Commission would deal with Napocor's request, Bunye repeated that
Napocor should first explain its side.
"On the side of the Palace, we will make sure that small consumers will receive
protection," he said.
Bunye did not say how.
A reduction in power rates promised by Ms Macapagal during the campaign is part
of her six-point program for the next six years.
Militant groups branded the Napocor plan as a blackmail and warned Sunday it
could wreak havoc on the economy.
The utility firm has filed a petition with the Energy Regulatory Commission to
increase the rates it charges power distributors by an average P1.85 per
kilowatt-hour (kWh) nationwide.
It also asked to be allowed to use a new methodology for billing customers, the
so-called time of use (TOU) concept that would do away with the current flat rate.
The twin requests would nearly double the current rates for Napocor customers in
its three main grids in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.
Napocor said the rate increase was necessary to prevent a return of the massive
power blackouts, which hit the country in the 1990s.
A raise in Napocor generation charges would also likely mean electricity rate
increases. Napocor is the main source of power for electricity distributors,
like the Manila Electric Co., which has four million customers.
Napocor president Rogelio Murga said the current low prices being charged by the
state-run firm would not attract investors for it to be able to build new
capacity to forestall an energy crisis in 2008.
Business leaders earlier grudgingly supported the Napocor proposal, saying it
was a bitter pill to swallow but necessary to stem the financial hemorrhage of
the firm.
Meralco has already announced an increase in its rates by as much as 13.27
centavos per kWh starting July, citing the higher generation charges by Napocor,
among other factors. Inquirer, 06/28/2004
US TO TRAIN MORE FILIPINO TROOPS IN ANTI-TERROR DRIVE
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- The United States is concerned about the continued presence of
operatives of the Jemaah Islamiya regional terror network in Mindanao and would
provide more training in counter-terrorist operations to the Philippine
military, a US commander said Sunday.
"We are concerned of the presence of JI in the southern Philippines," Admiral
Thomas Fargo, commander in chief of the US Pacific Command, told reporters.
Fargo said the JI presence in the Philippines will be among the issues to be
raised during his discussion with top Philippine military officials.
The military had said that about 40 JI members were hiding in the mountains of
Mindanao and helping train members of Muslim rebel groups.
Fargo said US soldiers would train Filipino troops next month in Mindanao as
part of Washington's ongoing efforts to help combat terrorism in the country.
The new round of combat training will be conducted at an army camp in Zamboanga,
where US-led training sessions had been held in the past, officials said.
Further details were not available.
Transnational concerns will be added to the training design, he said.
But Fargo also stressed that the mutual training includes humanitarian
assistance and civic action.
Before arriving in the Philippines, Fargo visited Malaysia, Thailand and
Singapore. Inquirer, 06/28/2004
SALE OF GOV’T POWER PLANTS CAN AVERT CRISIS – MACAPAGAL.
Selling the generation plants of the state-owned National Power Corp. could help avert
the coming acute power shortage, President Macapagal-Arroyo said Sunday.
Her spokesperson, Ignacio Bunye, said Ms Macapagal had already directed Energy
Secretary Vincent Perez to privatize not sequentially but all at the same time Napocor's
generation assets.
"The President has ordered Secretary Perez to prepare the bidding documents for all
and to sell the moment anybody is willing to buy," Bunye said.
Ms Macapagal issued the statement after Federico Lopez, First Generation Holdings Corp.
president, warned that a nationwide power crisis could come earlier than the government
expected.
Lopez said it might be too late to avert the power shortage in some areas in the Visayas
and Mindanao.
Bunye, however, maintained that the President was sticking to the Department of Energy's
projection that a power crisis could hit the country in 2008 and not 2007 as predicted
by Lopez.
Lopez said the country would need between $2 billion and $3 billion and at least a
four-year lead time to finance and build new power plants.
He said the only way to avoid the return of chronic blackouts was to allow power
utilities like the Lopez-controlled Manila Electric Co. to contract their own new
power supplies.
His proposal, however, raised fears that it might result in "sweetheart" deals similar
to the controversial deals between Meralco and Lopez-owned power generation firms.
In an interview over RMN radio, Bunye said the President had made the power
industry "next in the reform agenda" because a crisis could delay economic progress.
Finance Secretary Juanita Amatong, chair of the Private Sector Assets and Liabilities
Management Corp., said a number of multinational groups and power firms had shown keen
interest in acquiring the power generation assets of Napocor.
Amatong noted that the Napocor board had already approved the sale of five state-owned
power plants and that more deals were expected to be closed within the next few months.
Fears of a "sweetheart" deal are not limited to the arrangement between Meralco and
Lopez-owned generation plants.
Consumer groups and critics of the administration have described the compromise agreement
between the government and the Lopezes over the cash-strapped Maynilad Water Services Inc.
as another such deal.
But Sen. Joker Arroyo yesterday said politics was behind the "big fuss" over the
government's bid to take over Maynilad.
Arroyo said the Maynilad issue was simply "an effective but gutter campaign issue" in
this election season. He noted that the financial woes of the Lopez-owned water utility
firm were smaller compared with the bailout of certain government corporations by
previous administrations.
Source: Philippines Daily Inquirer, 5 April 2004
ENERGY CHIEF WARNS OF POWER RATE HIKE AFTER POLLS.
When the wooing by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo stops, voters will be hit by
a new round of power rate increases.
The increases will come a few days after the May 10 elections, Energy Secretary
Vincent Perez Jr. said Thursday.
Perez said the increases would result from the lifting of the cap of 40-centavos
per kilowatt-hour on the purchased power cost adjustment (PPCA) of the state-run
National Power Corp.
Ms Macapagal imposed the cap almost two years ago during her Labor Day speech amid
protests over the high purchased power adjustment, a component of the cost of electricity
paid by consumers.
Perez said the lifting of the PPCA cap would help Napocor cut its losses, which rose to
73.1 billion pesos last year. Industry observers see this expanding even more to between
113 billion pesos and 140 billion pesos this year.
The imposition of the cap resulted in "artificially low" rates being charged by the
Napocor to its customers, according to Perez.
While Perez stressed that the imposition of caps on the PPCA was not hinged on politics,
he hinted that a more concrete directive on the 40-centavo cap could only come upon the
conclusion of the national elections.
The ERC earlier said it was up to Malacanang to lift the cap because it was the President
who imposed it.
The lifting of the cap would result in higher electricity costs for consumers because
Napocor's customers would just pass on the higher PPCA to customers. Lopez-led
distribution utility Manila Electric Co. is one of Napocor's biggest customers. Meralco
gets about 50 percent of its supply requirements from Napocor.
Source: Philippines Daily Inquirer, 2 April 2004
ARROYO LAUDS ERC ORDER ON MERALCO RATE CUT.
President Arroyo hailed yesterday the order of the Energy Regulatory
Commission (ERC) requiring the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) to reduce by 21.49
centavos the cost of electricity starting next month.
"We uphold a policy of social equity balanced with the viability of the whole power
industry," she said in a statement from Malacanang.
"This has been a difficult balancing process, and the ERC has been doing a commendable
job. In the end, the national interest is served when we have stable public utilities
delivering affordable services to the Filipino people."
Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said over state-run Radyo ng Bayan that Mrs.
Arroyo has left it to lawyers of the ERC and Meralco to discuss the temporary
restraining order issued by the Supreme Court to stop the ERC from implementing a
resolution granting Meralco provisional authority to raise power rates.
The 12-centavo per kilowatt-hour increase was supposed to have taken effect this
month, but it was stopped by the Supreme Court on Jan. 14.
Source: Philippine Star, 28 January 2004
SC’S MERALCO RATE RULING ALARMS MBC.
Makati businessmen have expressed concern about the repercussions of a recent
decision by the Supreme Court (SC) ordering the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) to
suspend a rate increase set for this month while it considers a petition filed by
various consumer groups.
In a statement released yesterday, the Makati Business Club (MBC) said it is concerned
that the SC decision regarding Meralco’s petition for rate hike adjustment granted by
the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) sets a precedent for all future petitions by
any utility before a regulatory agency.
The group pointed out that utility investors and operators have become increasingly
reluctant to conduct business in the Philippines due to the perceived instability and
unpredictability of the regulatory environment.
The group called on the SC to exercise judicial restraint on matters of business and
contracts, which they said may have tremendous impact or unintended consequences on
the economy.
The SC ordered Meralco and the ERC, which allowed charges to rise by 12 centavos per
kilowatt-hour, to "observe the status quo prevailing before the filing of the petition"
last Dec. 23 by consumer groups Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), Akbayan, Sanlakas
and Partido ng Manggagawa.
The ERC and the debt-laden utility firm have until today to respond to the petition.
The SC is set to hear oral arguments on Jan. 27.
The petitioners said the ERC did not consult consumers before it issued its Nov. 27
order granting Meralco its first rate increase since 1994, and that the increase lacked
legal basis.
The petitioners urged the Supreme Court not to give credence to the ERC’s assurance that
it will have Meralco return the excess payments if the increase is deemed unreasonable.
They pointed out that Meralco does not have a good track record on refunding consumers.
The petitioners also questioned the ERC’s decision to allow Meralco’s rate hike, saying
the power firm did not even ask for a specific increase when it filed its application
with the commission.
They assailed the ERC for not conducting a hearing before granting the increase.
The rate hike has also become a political hot potato.
Critics accused President Arroyo of allowing the hike in return for support from the
powerful Lopez family, which owns part of Meralco, in convincing Sen. Noli de Castro
to run as her vice president in the May elections.
De Castro used to be a broadcaster at ABS-CBN, a television network controlled by the
Lopezes.
